EDITORIAL: County sees marked improvement from Great Recession, still much to do

Published: Saturday, July 6, 2013 at 03:03 PM.

It began decades ago. One by one, our textile mills, long the center of industry and life in Cleveland County, closed shop.

Gone were the days of easy to find steady jobs with steady pay.

Thousands of workers had to find new work and new trades.

And while we slowly recovered, the Great Recession of 2009 hit, which doubled unemployment numbers across the United States.

In recent years, we've celebrated the successes of new industry calling Cleveland County home. Those like Clearwater Paper, who employ hundreds as part of their 24/7 cycle of creating product. Those like AT&T, who made a historic nearly $1 billion capital investment to the county as part of their plans to build a state-of-the-art data center in Kings Mountain. And, just this year, KSM Castings. The German manufacturing company plans to create nearly 200 jobs.

If you look at just the first six months of 2012, Cleveland County secured more than 400 new jobs and nearly $1 billion in capital investment.

County officials say 2012 was a historic year for new industry and hard to top. Even so, we landed KSM Castings just months ago, the biggest single jobs announcement the county has seen since 2010.

It began decades ago. One by one, our textile mills, long the center of industry and life in Cleveland County, closed shop.

Gone were the days of easy to find steady jobs with steady pay.

Thousands of workers had to find new work and new trades.

And while we slowly recovered, the Great Recession of 2009 hit, which doubled unemployment numbers across the United States.

In recent years, we've celebrated the successes of new industry calling Cleveland County home. Those like Clearwater Paper, who employ hundreds as part of their 24/7 cycle of creating product. Those like AT&T, who made a historic nearly $1 billion capital investment to the county as part of their plans to build a state-of-the-art data center in Kings Mountain. And, just this year, KSM Castings. The German manufacturing company plans to create nearly 200 jobs.

If you look at just the first six months of 2012, Cleveland County secured more than 400 new jobs and nearly $1 billion in capital investment.

County officials say 2012 was a historic year for new industry and hard to top. Even so, we landed KSM Castings just months ago, the biggest single jobs announcement the county has seen since 2010.

And more silver linings appear to be in the future. Bernhardt Furniture is returning to Shelby after an absence of several years. The long-discussed Earl Scruggs Center is slated to open by year's end. And, spurred on by our growing tourism presence, a new Hampton Inn is being built at the site of the old theater by Cleveland Mall.

You want more retail options? How about Marshalls, sweetFrog, Starbucks and PetSmart. All opened up or announced plans to be in operation later this year.

Obviously these announcements did not happen on their own. Several of our successes took years before they came to fruition. It took a lot of work by our county leadership, from county and city managers, commissioners to city council to our acclaimed economic development team.

We've learned from past failures. Such as companies who arrived, accepted our incentive packages but then didn't fulfill their end of the bargain. Our modern incentive plans call for the workers to be hired before the company can take advantage of whatever tax breaks are part of the incentive package.

We can only hope that leadership ensures that state and local taxes are kept as low as possible to attract additional growth. Our competition for these jobs is more often other states than it is other North Carolina counties. North Carolina has one of the highest tax burdens not only in the region but in the country. Our corporate tax rate of 6.9 percent is also one of the highest in the country. What might happen if that figure was closer to the 5.9 percent national rate?

Cleveland County is no longer a textile home. We're diversifying. Now we have manufacturing, data centers, research & development and distribution. We have new companies arriving and we existing industry expanding. And while the latest unemployment figures still put us in double digits, we have already shown marked improvement from the peak of the Great Recession.

We hope our leaders continue to put their politics aside for the betterment of all Cleveland County. New jobs are good for everyone, whether they be housed in Shelby, Kings Mountain, Boiling Springs or Casar.